Saturdays feature race at Saratoga Race Course is the Grade 1, $600,000 dollar Alabama Stakes.

The prestigious stakes race for 3-year-old fillies is one of the oldest races for females in the United States, with its first edition taking place in 1872 in a race Won by WOODBINE, a horse owned by August Belmont.

The race itself was not precisely named in honor of the great state of Alabama; rather, it was named after William Cottrell of Mobile, Alabama, who was too modest to have a race named for him personally and requested it be named after his home state.

Cottrell, who came to the United States from England during the 1840’s, was an owner and breeder whose horse-ASCENSION finished 10th in the inaugural Kentucky Derby in 1875, but he also owned BUCHANAN who Won the Run for the Roses in 1884.

This year marks the 143rd edition of the Grade 1 Alabama and has drawn a competitive field of 10 three-year-old fillies, and will be run at the classic distance of a mile & 1/4 on the main track.

On Friday the Daily Racing Blog will take a look at the runners for this years event. So stop on back.